"My question was, who are these people? Who do they love? What do they do? How do they do what they do? I was curious to know how America works," Laskas told WTAE's Sally Wiggin.

O assistant editor Abbe Wright wrote that the book shows "intimate profiles of the unsung people -- coal miners, migrant workers, and a female truck driver recently profiled in O -- who make this country run."

That truck driver is Sputter -- real name, Shannon Smith -- and she never hesitated when Laskas asked to ride in her truck for a week.

"I was just eager to do it. If somebody was willing to listen, I'm willing to talk," Smith said. "I was a little nervous because I didn't know her, she didn't know me, and I didn't know if she would be able to handle this lifestyle. But after a while, oh my gosh, Jeanne Marie got so comfortable. I didn't want her to leave when it was time for her to depart."

Laskas, of Scenery Hill, is the director of the writing program at Pitt. The book took her from cowboys to cheerleaders, underground with coal miners, and to an oil rig in Alaska where it was 45 degrees below zero.

She said spending so much time standing in the shoes of others left her a changed person.